Oh wow, these chapters take me like 4-5 hours just to proofread. x_x Anyway, I hope you read, enjoy, and leave a comment :P
(Speechless guest - your reply is on tumblr ;) )
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle and its characters do not belong to me.
the sands of Harasa
Chapter 2: A Quiet Night
Kurogane jerked awake to warm hands on his skin.
"Shh. Don't move." It was actually one bony hand on his abdomen holding him down, and another further up, on his chest, light fingertips brushing over his sternum. There was no threat in that touch, only care, and he couldn't sense hostility around, nor any moving, unnatural life forces.
"Where're we?" he muttered thickly. When he cracked his eyes open, Kurogane found Fai bent over him, golden hair falling into his face as he dragged his fingertips to the next patch of skin.
"On some sort of a hill. Syaoran-kun said this is made of rock. The worms can't burrow through here."
He hadn't thought he'd fainted, but he must have, if he didn't remember anything since he fell. It was dark, shadowy, and quiet. Kurogane worked his jaw. His tongue felt thick and heavy, and his head throbbed slightly. So did his feet and whatever part of his chest Fai was prodding at. There was a slight, roiling discomfort working its way through his stomach. "What happened? Where's the kids?"
"So many questions, Kuro-run. Slow down." There was a slight tug on his chest, accompanied by a bit of pain, as if Fai was pulling a hair out. He wasn't, though. Kurogane blinked his vision into focus. There was a little metal dish lying further down on his chest, and a pile of ivory spines in it. Fai's fingers were still moving, seeking out the next spine. "We made it to a hill. I sent Syaoran-kun and Sakura-chan to scout around, maybe get us some firewood."
"The fire?" He frowned. His intention hadn't been to set the whole landscape ablaze, but their safety came first, especially when there had been more worms approaching.
"Well, we didn't have time to be concerned about that. There were worms surfacing when we left." Fai shrugged; Kurogane felt it in the shift of his hands. "Sakura-chan wasn't too happy about the burning, but she was more worried about you. It was a bad bite you got on your leg, Kuro-sama."
"Can't be that bad. It was a tiny bastard." He frowned, tried to sit up. Fai shoved him back down into something hard. It was the back seat of the car, Kurogane realized. Fai was crammed into the space where legs would usually go, and Kurogane's legs were sticking out of the open door. The sky was a deep blue out, a shade that wasn't quite like the sky in Nihon, but similar.
"It was bad enough that we had to give you some antidote," Fai said dryly. "It's a good thing that we bought some before we left. Even then, we had to act quickly. The poison took you out in no time at all."
Kurogane grunted. "How'd you get us here?"
Fai pressed his lips together, kept his eyes on his probing fingers. He picked at a spine and tugged it out after a couple of unsuccessful attempts. "It's not nice of you to get hurt like that, you know, forcing me to treat your wounds."
"Tch. No one's forcing you to do anything, idiot." He watched as Fai set the spine on the growing pile, moved his fingertips in slow circles to seek more out. "I can treat myself."
"So you say as you lie unconscious and writhing," the wizard answered. "You were in pretty bad shape. Feverish. The children were worried."
Maybe there was an I was worried hidden in there somewhere, but Kurogane thought it might be too much to hope for.
"I'm fine now." The fact that Fai refused to answer his question meant that magic had been involved. Kurogane remembered an icy breeze in spite of the fire, shortly before he blacked out. "Ice worked?"
"Hmm?" Fai glanced up at him then, blue eyes luminous in the dimness of the car. There was a softness about his demeanor that made Kurogane want to reach up, to see if this was some sort of poison-induced hallucination. Fai was never this gentle towards him. He swallowed, curled his fingers into his palms. Before Yama, he was certain that this would never have happened. Sakura would have been here with them, or Syaoran, and Fai would be waking him up with jokes and stupid crap.
Now, though... He remembered Fai weaving between the towering sand worms, remembered the red of his lips and the different smiles he had. Fai, crouched over him and touching him gently, pulling spines that really posed no threat to his life. The idiot could deny this all he wanted, and Kurogane would still want to kiss him anyway. He swallowed, breathed in deep. No cinnamon scent now. "What did the kids do?"
The grin on the wizard's mouth grew wide and fond. He brightened, glanced out of the door. (Kurogane just wanted to haul him down close, damn it.) "We got you to this rock, and Syaoran-kun administered the antidote on the way here. I had Sakura-chan pick out the spines in your cloak. You threw it onto a cactus, Kuro-rin. How could you? There were so many that I had to get Syaoran-kun to help. Don't go throwing your clothes everywhere unless you want spines in your butt, Kuro-wan!"
Kurogane raised an eyebrow at him. "You'd want to pick those out, huh?"
Fai froze. His cheeks darkened, and Kurogane couldn't help smirking. There was something between them, no matter how hard he tried to deny it. Fai was flustered. It was a very endearing reaction (had Fai ever blushed before?) and Kurogane wished this moment would drag on a little longer.
"Kuro-puu is a pervert," Fai muttered, looking back down at Kurogane's chest. He swept his fingers in larger arcs.
Kurogane figured that keeping the wizard's thoughts on the kids was the way to go, when Fai was here and close and his guard was down. There was worry in the lines on his forehead, but Kurogane couldn't do anything about that. Fai probably had not the time to erase his magic. "You were talking about the kids. They hurt?"
The idiot cheered up. He beamed at Kurogane, and Kurogane wondered if this was the key to Fai's heart. The wizard seemed to have forgiven him for eavesdropping in Yama—was this a permanent thing, or did it last only as long as Kurogane was injured?
"Kuro-daddy cares for the children," Fai crowed, his face suffused with genuine delight. Kurogane glared at him. He still didn't approve of the stupid nickname. "Neither of them were hurt. They were more concerned about you. Mokona too."
"I don't care," he said.
"But you do." Fai was glowing, happy, and that didn't fade when the children's voices drifted closer. Their lantern bobbed into view next; Syaoran was carrying stacks of firewood under his arms, while the princess hugged a smaller bundle to herself, lantern handle clutched between her hands. "Look, they're back! Sakura-chan! Syaoran-kun! Kuro-daddy's awake!"
They hurried over, faces a mix of relief and joy. Kurogane didn't begrudge them their appearance. If anything, Fai brightened even more when they came closer, and Kurogane had to wonder at him, how he'd gone from trying to keep the kids at arm's length to falling in love with them, without even seeming to realize it himself. If Fai wasn't going to acknowledge it, then Kurogane wasn't going to point it out, either. He didn't need the idiot trying to hide and pretend when there was no reason to.
"How are you feeling?" they chorused. Sakura held the lantern up—it had been dim in the car before—and Kurogane squinted under its yellow flicker.
"Fine," he said. (His stomach felt strange, though, a little bloated, like he'd eaten something wrong.) He tried sitting up again. Fai yelped, snatched the dish of spines off his skin before it could spill. "What was in that antidote."
"Is it working?" Syaoran asked with a frown. He turned away to set his firewood down, taking the lantern from Sakura when his hands were no longer occupied.
Kurogane shrugged. His shoulders itched with sunburn, and the inside of the car seemed cramped, tight, like there wasn't space to breathe. He heaved himself out and onto his feet, grimaced at the pain jabbing through his soles. He flicked a look at Fai. "You haven't removed the ones in my feet yet?"
Fai huffed indignantly. "I thought those in your chest should go first, seeing as how they're so close to your heart, Kuro-myu."
He frowned. "The antidote's messing with my stomach. What was in it?"
Syaoran paled, glancing at Kurogane's midriff as if he could discern its contents just by staring. "There was goat's milk in it."
Kurogane swore. For all that the night air helped momentarily, the thought of milk in his stomach was enough to make his discomfort worsen.
"There wasn't really another choice," Fai said uneasily. "It was the lesser of two evils—I'm sure you'll agree."
He headed off to a clump of scraggly shrubs to empty his stomach, feet throbbing the whole way. When his stomach calmed and he'd spat the foul taste from his mouth, Kurogane headed back to the car, accepted a bottle from Sakura with a mutter of thanks. She peered at him in concern.
"Anyway, now that you're awake, you'll be able to pull the rest of the spines yourself, Kuro-pon," Fai said. He was at the back of the car now, fiddling with the packages of supplies there. "We've all had dinner. There are dry rations here if you're hungry."
"Not yet." Kurogane waved the kids away. "I'm fine. An upset stomach's not going to kill me."
"Kuro-daddy is very strong." There wasn't any malice in Fai's words, and he was glancing at Kurogane sideways, through his lashes, a half-smile on his lips.
"You're not going to stop with that 'daddy' crap, are you," he said flatly.
Fai filled a bottle with water from a plastic drum. "The children look up to you."
He snorted. "They look up to you too." The wizard blinked up at him in surprise. Kurogane shrugged, looked away across the flat rock outcrop they'd somehow found themselves on. Below, past the edge of the clearing, the desert was a sea of black. Had the fire burned it all? "What did you do to get us here? If you don't answer, I'm going to ask the kid."
The wizard tensed, and the light in his eyes dimmed. "I got us onto this hill. Syaoran-kun was the one to suggest we come here. The thing is, Mokona says the feather is still pretty far away."
"Do you have the spells?" Kurogane saw the boy and his princess glance over; he wasn't sure if they'd heard, but it wasn't like Fai could hide this secret forever, either. Fai shook his head, gaze downcast.
"Not all of us have the time to lie around and do the things we need to do, Kuro-pyon. Besides, it's not like that's important—"
"You can't lie about that, not to me." He felt a surge of satisfaction when the wizard fell silent. Fai watched him, pupils dilated in the dimness, and Kurogane flicked his gaze at Mokona. "You can get them to help with the spells. Much quicker that way."
Blue eyes grew wide, and narrowed just as quickly. "You're out of your mind," Fai muttered.
"Just showing you the quickest way to solve your problems. You make them difficult for yourself."
"There are some things best kept private." Fai had finished filling all the bottles. He grouped them to the side, shoving the water drum back into the car. "Not all of us can be as open as you are."
"Let me help, at least."
The wizard paused for a heartbeat, then straightened, brushing dust off his robes. (It looked similar to his fur-lined cloak. Kurogane was reminded, all over again, that their original clothes had been lost about three worlds ago.) "It's very easy to make mistakes with that kind of thing, Kuro-Kuro. It's not some children's drawing game."
He frowned. "I didn't say it was one."
Fai pursed his lips. Worry had carved lines around his mouth, and Kurogane saw the uncertainty in his eyes, the way he stood tense and ill at ease.
"How many do you need this time?"
"Does it matter?" Fai looked away, towards the children, wrapped his arms around himself as if he found the night air chilly. Kurogane knew that the wizard had been in far icier weather, and that what he really wanted was somewhere he could hide. Like all the other times.
"Just shut up and let me help, damn it." He thought about reaching for Fai, to shake him to his senses, but Fai seemed more likely to bolt whenever he touched him. "The sooner we get the birds out, the sooner you'll relax, right?"
Fai's gaze skittered away, and Kurogane knew he was right.
"Oi, pork bun," he said. Fai snuffled next to him, unfolded himself to catch Mokona as she bounced up to them.
"Do you have any drawing paper, Mokona?" Fai asked lightly, thin smile stretched brittle across his face. "And a pen?"
The creature smiled up at him from his cupped palms. "Is Fai going to draw? Mokona read Fai's comic book, but Mokona didn't understand any of it!"
Fai's forehead crinkled; he blinked several times. "Aren't you talking about Kuro-rin's comics?"
Mokona shook her head. "No, it's this one, the one Fai and Kurogane bought from Shougo."
She inhaled and puffed up, full to bursting, and when she opened her mouth, a little book smacked into Fai's hand. Fai looked strangely at it. He glanced at Kurogane, and Kurogane suddenly realized what it was that the pork bun had given Fai.
"Don't," he blurted.
It was the wrong thing to say, apparently, because Fai lifted an eyebrow, smiled wryly, and flipped it open the moment Mokona hopped onto his shoulder. Kurogane swore, snatched at the book. Fai tugged it just beyond his reach. "I remember now," he said lowly, a note of humor in his tone. "It's that book from Shougo-san's shop."
Kurogane remembered piles of lacy underthings strewn everywhere, glass dicks and handcuffs and feathers in that shop. "Oh, hell no," he breathed. Not right now, when he wasn't even feeling up to chasing Fai for no good reason.
"Oh, yes," Fai sang, turned his back to Kurogane, using the wan moonlight to help illuminate the pages. Kurogane rubbed his temples and sighed. He wasn't even interested in that book, for heaven's sake! That damn fucker had shoved it into the pile and made them pay for it. All Kurogane did was flip briefly through it. "It looks like a school." Pages flipped noisily in the otherwise-silent desert, with the children talking quietly in the background. Fai laughed, more a sound of surprise than amusement. "Oh."
"Does Fai understand it?" Mokona asked from her perch, lop ears lifting in interest.
"Well." The wizard's voice was low and considering, like he was debating whether to tease Kurogane with the book. Kurogane was proven right, when Fai peeked at him over his shoulder. "It's about naughty people doing naughty things. But this is Kuro-pon's book. He might explain it better to you."
"No way," he snapped. Fai lobbed the book over at him, and Kurogane caught it on instinct. He wasn't going to look at it, but it was far safer in his possession, than in Fai's or Mokona's or the kids'. The cover was familiar, now that he was looking at it again. "It's just stupid crap about some teachers."
Fai's eyebrows crawled further up his forehead. "Kuro-rin understands it, then? Does he like that sort of thing?"
Heat swamped his cheeks. Kurogane spluttered. "No! That damn shop assistant included that in the pile, you idiot!"
(But he did, he liked that sort of thing where Fai was concerned.)
"Let's use it for tinder, then." Fai met his eyes, the corner of his lips quirking. Another challenge.
"Hell no. You don't burn books." Kurogane glared, shoved the comic into his back pocket. "You have firewood."
"But what's the story about?" Mokona cried, looking between them.
"Kuro-pon will read it and tell you what it's about, Mokona." Fai smirked. "Won't you, Kuro-rinta? You'll tell Mokona every little juicy detail?"
He watched as Mokona looked hopefully at him, paws clasped together. "Will Kuro-pon read it to Mokona? Syaoran turned red and said he couldn't understand it. Which was funny because Syaoran knows how to read a lot of languages."
They looked toward the kids. Syaoran had started a small fire a couple yards in front of the car, and he and Sakura were both looking resolutely away from them.
"So Mokona asked Sakura. Sakura turned red too." Mokona sagged on Fai's shoulder, her face a picture of abject disappointment.
Fai's expression was pinched, and Kurogane would have felt triumphant if not for the horror that swam in his gut. "You gave it to the kids?" he blurted. Mokona nodded. Fai looked helplessly between them, equally appalled. "Damn it."
"Well, they have to learn at some point," Fai said brightly.
They didn't have to learn how two guys had sex. They didn't— Did they think Kurogane had bought this because of Fai? Knowing how people had sex was one thing, but knowing how your parents, or your travel companions did that kind of thing was a whole other story. If Sakura and Syaoran had sex, well, that wasn't any of Kurogane's damn business.
"Save it," Kurogane snapped. "What's done is done."
"So will Kuro-tan read it to Mokona?" The creature sat miserably on Fai's shoulder, and Kurogane felt as if everyone's attention had been anchored onto him.
"No," he said, because he wasn't going to.
"Kuro-chin is the only one who can read it," Fai added helpfully, sidling up to Kurogane. He patted the book through Kurogane's pants; every thump carried over into his ass. "He's old enough to explain what exactly goes on in the story."
"Stop that." Kurogane glared, and Fai smiled smugly up at him. He wanted to wipe that grin off the idiot's face. "Why don't you read it. You seem to understand it well enough."
"Ah. But Kuro-tan understands every word," the wizard countered. "And words are very important in scenes like that."
He gave Kurogane a look. Kurogane didn't know what the hell that was supposed to mean. "Why don't I read it to you, and you tell the pork bun what it means."
Fai stared at him. "Kuro-pon is insinuating," he said slowly, "that he wants us to read the book together? With Mokona?"
It was the strangest, most disturbing idea he'd ever heard.
Mokona cheered up. "Fai-mommy and Kuro-daddy will read it to Mokona?"
They stared at her, Fai consideringly, and Kurogane with no small amount of disbelief. "No," they said at the same time, looking at each other. There were some things that simply could not be done.
"But Kuro-rin can still read it to you," Fai added. Kurogane glared at him.
"No."
"Kuro-puu said he would!" Mokona deflated (though she never looked like anything less than a blob). Kurogane wanted to toss her off the rock outcrop. The wizard, too.
"And daddies aren't supposed to lie to children," Fai said pointedly. Kurogane snorted.
"Whatever," he said. "Maybe when the kid is old enough, he'll read it to you."
Fai stared at him in horror. Kurogane rolled his eyes.
"The pen and paper. Or have you forgotten?" Fai flinched at those words; he was rewarded with a little whisper of victory in his chest.
The idiot turned away from him then, looking straight at Mokona. "May I have my notebook back, Mokona? And a pen?"
Mokona obliged. She produced a worn notebook and two pens, Kurogane was gratified to note. Fai shoved them all into his robes.
"But Kuro-rin will definitely read that to you," Fai said resolutely, slanting his gaze at Kurogane. Payback.
He snorted. This was turning into some sort of a game between them. He caught the faint upward tilt of Fai's lips. "Find someone else to read it," he told Mokona.
Kurogane stayed where he was while Fai wandered off to a side of the clearing, probably to get some spells drawn in the time they had here. He shrugged, headed over to the crackling campfire where the kids sat next to each other, sharing some fruit. They looked up as he approached, tentative smiles on their faces.
"You guys okay?" He folded himself onto the ground beside the princess, took the slice of pale, wet fruit that she held out to him.
Both children nodded. "Fai-san kept us safe in the car," Syaoran explained. "The worms couldn't reach us at that height."
"Huh." Even with giant blood-hunting worms targeting them, the idiot had the sense to keep them safe. Fai was a powerful wizard, though, and Kurogane was certain that they had not seen half of what he could do. (He rather wished he knew, but this was fine, what he understood of the wizard's abilities now.) "How did he get me out of there?"
"He didn't tell you?" Sakura asked, surprise stark in her eyes as she leaned forward. (And this shouldn't sting, but it did.) Kurogane shook his head. "Before he rescued you, Fai-san froze some of the worms. Then he ran to you and pulled you off the cactus, and jumped onto the worms he froze. I didn't know he could jump that high."
Fai had leaped onto lampposts back in Outo, but Kurogane knew that to be an altered reality. He hadn't seen Fai doing anything of that sort elsewhere. (There was Hanshin, too, where he flew with the help of his kudan.) "After the worms?"
"He brought the car down," Syaoran continued. "He was struggling with carrying you, but he brought the car down to where he was on the worms. We opened the doors and pulled you in."
"And the idiot?"
"Fai-san climbed in after we got a hold of you," Sakura chimed in, her eyes dark with the memory. She offered him another slice of fruit, but Kurogane still had yet to eat the previous piece. "It was lucky that he did, because the fire was melting the ice on the worms. He nearly got his foot bitten off."
Kurogane suspected that a missing foot would be the least of the wizard's concerns. All the same, it was a good thing that they were all safe. He hadn't expected himself to fall prey to a poisonous bite, much less one while he'd been distracted looking at Fai. It was an embarrassing admission, even to himself.
"When we were all in the car, Fai-san brought us away from the valley," Syaoran said. He was looking into the fire, right eye glimmering blankly. Kurogane remembered his sword training—this would be a good place to practice while they had the time. (The kid was still woefully lacking in his response speed, though at least he hadn't gone an entire six months without picking up his sword.) "He said we should move towards where the feather was, but you were shaking really badly."
Sakura nodded. She looked pointedly at Kurogane until he popped his fruit portion into his mouth, before giving him another slice. "We suspected that you'd been poisoned. Fai-san was busy moving us to a safer spot, so I helped to hold you down while Syaoran-kun gave you a dose of the antidote." A grimace later, "we're sorry that it had to be goat's milk, Kurogane-san, we wouldn't have done it if you didn't look so pale. Fai-san kept looking over his shoulder at you."
"Doesn't matter." His stomach was still queasy, but there was nothing they could do about it at this point. Kurogane looked closely at the girl, found a dark spot on her cheek and one on her arm. Syaoran had bruises, too—next to his mouth, on his throat, and his arms. He drew a slow breath. "I gave you those bruises while I was jerking around."
They avoided his eyes and nodded. He cursed lowly.
"It isn't really your fault," Sakura hurried to explain, cradling her fruit slices. Juice was dripping stickily between her fingers—a waste, since they needed all the moisture they could get in this place. "You weren't conscious. Don't feel bad about it, Kurogane-san."
But he did, because he'd beat up innocent children and they couldn't possibly have had the strength to prevent that. He hadn't thought he'd need some way to restrain himself for the sake of the kids. There had always been the probability that Fai would be around to help—except he had been caught up with other things this time. "Sorry. Should've let the wizard do that instead. At least he deserves a black eye."
"Fai-san felt bad about it too," Syaoran said quietly, glancing towards where the blond had disappeared to. "He wanted to help, but he was in the driver's seat and we were almost done with the antidote, anyway."
(The idiot couldn't stop caring, could he?)
"Kind of done," Sakura added with a tiny smile. "You were saying things, and we couldn't get the antidote to go down until you'd stopped."
He almost didn't want to know. "What was I saying?"
The boy frowned at that. "It was a jumble of words. Some commands. I think you mentioned 'idiot' a time or two. It sounded like you were giving orders to someone."
Kurogane breathed a laugh. Blurting things from Yama was better than all the grievances about Fai and Tomoyo he didn't want to air. "'Idiot', huh? Figures."
"Fai-san said you were dreaming about him," Sakura murmured hesitantly. She added another slice of fruit to the one in his hand, and gave one to Syaoran. "But we weren't sure if he really meant it."
Syaoran nodded along. "'Hyuu, Kuro-rin dreams about me,'" he said in an awful imitation of Fai's lilt, glancing at Kurogane as if he expected to be socked around the ear. Kurogane scoffed. "But he was floating us to this hill at the same time."
"Spouting crap like he always does." Kurogane glanced down at the uneven stone surface they were all sitting on, and at the pile of firewood they'd scavenged from somewhere while he was unconscious. "You're sure this is solid rock?"
Syaoran nodded. "You can't really see it from here, but when we were floating over, I noticed that these are actually rock formations. You can tell by looking at their sides—when there's a slope of broken material accumulating next to rocks, that's a sign of weathering. Water collects and freezes in the cracks along the exposed surfaces. Over time, the expansion of ice causes the rock structure to weaken."
"Huh. Good to know." He thought about the kid's lecture for longer, then brought himself up short. "Wait. You said the water freezes here?"
"Deserts get really cold at night." Syaoran frowned and looked around, shrugging. "We don't know how low the temperatures go this time of year though. The locals weren't very helpful with that. They said the weather's been odd lately."
"Then you should head inside," Kurogane said. "Share a blanket or something."
Both kids stared wide-eyed at him, pink creeping into their cheeks.
Kurogane sighed and rubbed his temples. "I meant you should share heat. Unless the car has one of those heaters. There isn't space for all of us in there."
"But where are you and Fai-san going to sleep?" Sakura asked in concern.
Kurogane shoved the pieces of fruit into his mouth, wiped his hand on his pants. He still had those damn spines from his feet, and who knew how many there were left in his torso? "Don't know. We'll figure it out. You two go ahead and get some sleep while you can. I can't tell how late it is."
He frowned up at the sky, scanning the constellations for something he found familiar. There was none, and Kurogane wasn't surprised. It was just another reminder that he wasn't home in Nihon. This time, however, there were other people he cared about around him, and this really wasn't too bad at all, he realized. Everyone was safe, even Fai, who was probably crouched somewhere scribbling away.
He was about to call the pork bun over from wherever she was (because he still needed to talk to that witch, damn it), when Syaoran broke his train of thought.
"Um, Kurogane-san?" He glanced up at the kid, nodded for him to go on. "About that, um, that maganyan that Mokona-chan showed us—"
Kurogane froze. "What about it?"
"I— I mean, Sakura-hime and I thought it was your way of trying to tell us something," Syaoran stammered. "We thought, um, maybe you and Fai-san—"
"What the hell," he snapped. The kids, too? This was not happening. It really wasn't. His cheeks were hot.
"Sakura-hime and I won't think any worse of you. We— We know it can be a stigma in some cultures and we just wanted you to know that we don't disrespect either of you." Syaoran was red in the face, and to the side, the princess was nodding fervently. "We can tell that, um, that you like each other a lot, and that is okay, but we really don't need to know thingslikethataboutyouguys."
"The fuck," he spluttered. "Why the hell would you think that—"
Syaoran looked terrified. Sakura stood rooted to the spot, as if she couldn't decide whether the boy needed to be saved. "We— we didn't mean to be rude. Um. In our culture, physical intimacy is a very private thing—"
"I'm not talking about goddamn sex, damn it!" he roared.
It was suddenly very, very quiet in the desert. Syaoran looked like he was about to faint. Sakura had pressed her hands to her cheeks. Kurogane didn't want to know what the hell Fai thought of that.
"Forget it," he muttered. "Go to sleep."
"I'm very sorry!" Syaoran said, flustered. "The princess and I respect both you and Fai-san a lot! This doesn't change what we think of you!"
"Go to sleep," Kurogane said, loudly. The boy tensed up in front of him. "Apology accepted. Now go get some fucking rest."
He'd said the last few words clear and slow, and Syaoran stumbled away with a mumbled goodnight, almost falling head-first through the open car door. Sakura bowed down low and scrambled in behind him, shutting the door with a resounding bang. Mokona bounced in through the window after them.
It was a long few minutes before the heat in his cheeks dissipated. Kurogane rubbed his face, groaned into his hand. Not only did the kids know, but he'd yelled so loud that it probably reached Fai, and he wasn't sure how much the idiot had heard. Was Fai going to put a stop to everything, or was he going to tease Kurogane mercilessly now? He wasn't even sure he could look the wizard in the face again.
"You're some ninja, Kuro-pon," Fai said some time later, settling down beside him. "I was certain that ninja didn't make loud, rude comments about sex to innocent children."
Kurogane looked up from the bare sole of his foot, glowering at the idiot. Fai looked staunchly at his notebook. "It's not my damn fault that the pork bun gave them indecent things to read."
Blue eyes slid over to him. "Such a bad daddy, Kuro-wan. Be responsible for your actions."
"You didn't want to throw any of those things away," he retorted. "So it's not like you aren't at fault too."
Fai's mouth shut with a click; he looked away, curling his fingers into the thick robe at his calves. "I don't know what you're talking about," he said smoothly.
"Suit yourself." Kurogane shrugged and looked back at his foot, rubbing a thumb over thick skin until he found another spine. Forcing Fai to admit that they'd had sex didn't solve anything. "In any case, they know we fuck. Not sure how you're going to hide from that."
Fai opened and closed his mouth, blinking several times. He didn't say anything, however, and Kurogane was content to wait while he pinched the stubby ends of spines out with too-short fingernails, campfire shadows dancing across the folds of his feet. The spines incinerated when he flicked them into the flames, sending puffs of dark smoke into the sky. "It could just be a big misunderstanding."
"Then explain it to them yourself." Kurogane raised an eyebrow, challenging.
Fai frowned at him. "That's not fair of you, Kuro-tan. First you get poisoned and faint and I had to rescue you—"
"You could've left me to die."
Fai paused, his next words half-formed on his lips, and blinked again. He pouted. "You know I can't do that," he said. "The children will be very upset if you're gone."
"And why do you even care if they're upset?" Kurogane let the question sink in, watching Fai from the corner of his eye while he picked at his foot.
The wizard struggled. He was having trouble acknowledging his attachment to the kids, and Kurogane knew that. If he couldn't admit that he loved the kids, what more Kurogane? Kurogane didn't know what Fai felt towards him, but from the way the children talked, it sounded almost as if... Fai cared about him.
He didn't know what to think about that, when Fai kept running, but it made his heart beat a little quicker. There was some form of reciprocation here, that Fai didn't know about or didn't want to admit, but it was real, and it was a steady improvement from what happened in Yama. It made him want to do more, give Fai whatever he had (because he didn't do things by halves, and Fai didn't deserve that, either).
"Well, I'm sorry that you're such a grouch all the time," Fai retorted blithely, "but I'd rather us travel as one big, happy family."
Kurogane rolled his eyes. "So if we're a family, then we can help with those spells of yours."
Fai's smile evaporated. "For how sharp you are, Kuro-mii, one would think you'd learn to stop talking about that by now."
"I'm not like you."
"Which is why—"
"Which is why I think two people working on those things is better than one. Do you want him to follow you here?"
Fai's intake of breath was loud and sharp. Kurogane could see the way dread crept into his eyes, the way fear tightened the lines around his face. He let the silence between them stretch, so Fai could remember just how badly he wanted his magic gone from here. Fai curled into himself, hugged his knees closer.
Kurogane shifted closer to him, set a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently. The wizard leaned in by a fraction, but it was telling enough. "If I help, it'll get done faster," he said quietly. "No Ashura."
"No Ashura," the other whispered, his gaze lost in the fire.
"The one in Shura was different, wasn't he?" Kurogane asked.
Fai swallowed noisily. "Yeah."
He shifted his hand, so he was cupping Fai lightly around the back of his neck. Fai pressed into his touch, closed his eyes.
"You shouldn't," he whispered. "You should remember all the things you hate about me."
"Yeah, well. I need drawing practice."
It was enough to tease a wry smile from Fai. "Drawing practice, huh?" he mumbled. "It took me a while to even identify your fish."
Another reminder of Yama. It was a barb, unimportant enough that Kurogane shrugged it off easily. "So you agree that I need practice."
"Perhaps." Fai breathed in deep, held it, and exhaled shakily. "Just drawing practice. I think I could deal with that."
"What do I do first?"
The wizard uncurled from himself slowly, pulled his notebook out. He looked contemplative, a little uncertain, but he tore a page off and scribbled a few things on it. "Practice drawing these first. The angles and proportions of the runes have to be exactly the same."
It didn't look like much on the blue-lined paper, those angular squiggles, but Kurogane took the pen and paper that Fai held out, looked for a flat surface so he wouldn't be putting holes through the paper. There wasn't much for writing on—the rocks were jagged, and the ground was highly uneven. He could write on the surface of the car, though he'd much rather stay by Fai's side... and Fai wouldn't hand his notebook over so Kurogane had a backing to practice on.
He remembered the other book suddenly, the one he'd shoved into his pocket when he'd argued with the idiot earlier.
Fai cracked a smile when he pulled it out. "Rather read? I don't blame you."
"Need something to write on." He felt a little gratified when gold eyebrows lifted in surprise. Fai was throwing him off at the deep end where this was concerned—a single piece of paper, no flat surfaces, no pointers. And through all this, the wizard surreptitiously watched how he dealt with it. Kurogane set the book on his lap and the paper on top of it, picked a rune out, and tried reproducing it.
Writing on his lap wasn't easy. His hand began to cramp like that; the lines turned out crooked, and he could see why Fai had drawn his knees up, notebook flat across them as he worked quick pen strokes into the paper. So, he did as the wizard did—legs bent, book on his knees, pen held vertically upright, like how he would a brush. Fai glanced over, but made no comment.
This continued for a stretch of several minutes, until Kurogane had got the hang of most of the runes on the page. He drew them somewhat smaller than Fai's examples so there'd be space to practice more, and handed the page over when Fai flipped to a fresh sheet, turning to see how he was doing.
"Ugly, but half of them would work in a spell," the wizard pronounced. His grin was patronizing. He shifted closer, angled the paper towards Kurogane, before writing on it. "This rune here, you'll have to draw the lines closer, like that. This has a larger loop, like that. And this one here, you'll have to draw it sloping higher."
Kurogane frowned. "Looks the same to me."
Fai merely smiled at him, handing the torn sheet back. "Try again."
He clicked his tongue but did not complain. Already, this was far more than he'd expected Fai to share. Kurogane practiced writing the ones Fai had corrected him on, drawing the lines with the new angle and the loops a little larger. For another long period, there came only the sounds of firewood crackling, and the quiet conversation between the children in the car.
"What's the story about?" Fai asked suddenly. He was looking at the book Kurogane was writing on, a flicker of interest in his eyes. "Other than a school and gratuitous sex, I mean."
Kurogane shrugged. "Never read it."
"That's right." Fai pursed his lips. "Are you going to?"
He raised an eyebrow. "You interested?"
"No, no." The wizard laughed lightly, turning away, but it was one of those smiles that Fai pulled when he was trying to hide something. Kurogane snorted, tossed the comic over at him. Fai caught it without looking, glancing towards Kurogane in surprise. "Why are you—"
"You're the one interested in it, not me."
Fai blinked at him. His expression turned shrewd; his tone lowered. "Really, Kuro-pon? You aren't interested?"
And right there was a challenge Kurogane wasn't sure he wanted to refuse. "No," he said. He didn't know why Fai was doing this instead of working on his spells—hadn't he been afraid?
The wizard studied him for a moment longer, before he set his pen down, and tucked his notebook between his thighs and his belly. He flipped the comic open next, starting from the left. A foot away, Kurogane identified the ending credits of the story.
"You've got it wrong. It starts from the other end."
Fai licked his lips, flipped to the beginning. "So it starts with a school," he said. "This woman here really looks like Yuuko-san. 'Good morning, Big Guy-san,' she says. 'You're wearing a very black outfit.' The big guy answers, 'Good morning, Yuuko-san.''"
Kurogane stared. The idiot couldn't possibly be getting the words right. He weighed his practice sheet down with a rock, shuffled closer for a look. "Tch. She's saying, 'Welcome to the school. This is the staff room. You'll find your desk over here.' He answers, 'Thanks. Who are you?'"
"And who is she?"
"Some woman called Hara." Kurogane scanned through the page. "It's the guy's first day at the school. He's the new sports teacher." Fai let him flip the page. "Here, he's getting introduced to the rest of his comrades."
"The guy with the light-colored hair?" The other lead had come up to the main character, a tall man with dark hair and broad shoulders, not unlike Kurogane. "He's wearing a very interesting coat. Like a doctor's."
He was starting to see why that annoying shopkeeper had wanted to add this to their purchases. "He's the 'science' teacher. Mixes liquids in a glass jar. Says he likes making things explode."
Fai bit his lip. "He teaches potions?"
Kurogane shrugged. "Hell if I know."
The science teacher had begun to flirt blatantly with the sports teacher, and Kurogane didn't want to read the dialogue aloud. Things like you're very handsome and what strong arms you have weren't things he'd say under any circumstances.
So, he glossed over the panels. "The idiot teacher is saying stupid things to the sports teacher."
Fai looked sideways at him, blue eyes bright in the firelight. "Almost sounds familiar, don't you think?"
He looked right back at the wizard. "What do you think?"
"Smart of him."
Kurogane rolled his eyes.
The banter continued through more pages yet, and by the time they reached the end of the chapter, the characters were openly flirting. It didn't take a genius to guess what would happen next. "The sports teacher is inviting him over," he said. "We should probably stop here."
Fai lifted his eyebrows slyly. "Why?"
"Flip through the next few pages. Tell me if you want to continue." Kurogane watched as Fai bent the book in his hand, pages fluttering through the next chapter.
And there, a handful of panels later, the teachers were kissing in the story, hands pushing shirts off in what looked like a very slow sort of foreplay. Fai swallowed. "Um."
"I'm going back to the runes," Kurogane told him. "Kind of pointless reading things like that."
"Oh?" Fai slid his gaze over, and Kurogane returned that look seriously, leaving his expression open and hungry. Fai's breath hitched; he looked away.
"Better to do that kind of stuff than dream of it," he muttered. With the right person, he didn't add aloud. Fai would bolt at that.
"You really are a pervert," the wizard answered just as quietly. He licked his lips, shut the book, got to his feet. "I'll keep watch tonight. Get some rest, Kuro-rin."
"I'll keep watch from here." Fai tossed the comic back; he caught it. "Don't stay up long."
"What a caring father." There was a bit of a smile to those words, however, and Kurogane couldn't help grinning back.
Things were fine again, between Fai and himself. That was good enough. It was better than that, in fact, because the idiot was allowing him closer, whether he was aware of it or not, and Kurogane would take anything Fai offered. This was his life now. Kurogane sighed, returned to practicing his runes. He was mostly a patient man.
A/N: Yeah you can totally guess who the comic is about. If you hadn't already suspected it in 'when flight falls short'. LOL